Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-02-05
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 81, 1887.

With the National Woman'S
Rights Association in convention
here, with National Convention of
the w. G. I. U. of which Miss
Frances Willard is president; with
a Catholic convention; the social
season at it's height, and Congress
struggling with dozen important
questions, the past week at the
Capital has been at the same time
interes ing and amusing, serious
and gay.
The woman suffragists came and
fought aud failed, just as they have
been IN the habit of doing for the
past nineteen successive winters.
But they again condemned their OPP
pressors, cherished their faith and
renewed their vows. They are as
enthusiastic, resolute aud hopeful as
in years gone by, and they are
jubilanE over the fact that sixteen
Senators voted for their proposed
Constitutional amendment allowing
"people to vote, regardless of SEX"
They claim that eleven more Sena-
tors would have voted in their favor
had they been 10 the Senate Cham
Der when the amendment was call
ed up. That would make twenty
seven votes in all, and if true, one
third of the q. S. Senate is friendly
to woman suffrage.
The prominent leaders Of the
movement were all here as usual,
except Mrs. Elisabeth Cady Stanton,
who is in England now. They tell
of their wrongs as pataetically and
plead for their rights as eloquently
as they did when they were thirty
or forty years younger, and perhaps
more so, for time has made them
rich in experiences, and they have
more to tell and to talk about every
winter.
Mrs. Hooker declared that the
Constitution already guarantees to
women the right to vote. The only
trouble is that men will not learn by
heart that women are people. Mrs.
Wallace, who is one of the most
earnest workers In the cause OF
woman's enfranchisement, delivered
an address on the subject that was
pronounced the feature of the con
vention. She isdeeply conscientious
in believing that God has design
ed her to this work, and she speaks
with the conviction and solemnity
of dlvinely inspired messenger.
She said among other things that
the next statue of Liberty would
wear the face of Susan B. Anthony.
Mrs. Wallace is the mother of Gen.
Lew Wallace, who wrote Ben-Hur.
A committee of these ladies went to
the president with a memorial ask
ing him to veto the Edmunds-Tuck-
er bill, which proposes to disfran
chise the non-polygamous women, OF
Utah, in case it passes Congress as
finally amended and comes before
him for action. Mr.. Cleveland re-
ceived them in one of the private
parlors and told them he would
give the memorial careful considera-
ton, and that he regarded it as G
serious matter to disfrancbise any
class.
Senator Beck has at last succeed
ed in getting his bill before the
Senate prohibiting members from
acting as attorneys for railroads.
Senator Teller announced that he
was prepared to vote against the
measure Notwithstanding news
paper clamor, and Notwithstanding
the effort made to attract attention
to the fact that the Senate was
body of lawyers, and the charge
that Senators were devoting to the
practice of law for railroad corpora
tions the time which they should
devote to the public service. He
believed congressman should studi
ously abstain from employment of
that kind, but he argued that men
who came to Congress did not
therefore give up their business and
professions. He said an effort had
been made to deride the Senate, to
break it down, to destroy it's useful
ness and thus eventually compel it's
abolition. But this could not be
accomplished so long as Delaware
and Rhode Island insisted on the
right given them by the Constitu-
ton.
Others followed for and against
the bill, and in the midst of the
debate, Senator Frye of Maine
took the floor, in order, he said, to
give piece of information. He
read an Associated Press telegram
from Eastport, Me-, stating that the
winter school Of herring had struck
into the American shore, and that
about twenty five English boats and
vessels were there fishing within
the shore line, and that meanwhile
the English cruiser Middleton was
cruising near Eastport and st.
Andrews, ready to seize any Ameri-
can fishermen who might venture
beyond the line. That was all, he
said, and the debate proceeded.
Messrs Frye and Ingalls, were the
Senators who last week cbampioned
the retaliatory bill for the protection
of American fishermen with so much
warmth and bitterness. Mr.. In.
gals has since been deluged with
congratulatoIy letters from the
States and insolent denunciations
from Canada.